Conclusion

The classification of religions that will withstand all criticism and serve all the purposes of a general science of religions has not been devised. Each classification presented above has been attacked for its inadequacies or distortions, yet each is useful in bringing to light certain aspects of religion. Even the crudest and most subjective classifications throw into relief various aspects of religious life and thus contribute to the cause of understanding. The most fruitful approach for a student of religion appears to be that of employing a number of diverse classifications, each one for the insight it may yield. Though each may have its shortcomings, each also offers a positive contribution to the store of knowledge and its systematization. The insistence upon the exclusive validity of any single taxonomic effort must be avoided. To confine oneself to a single determined framework of thought about so rich and variegated a subject as religion is to risk the danger of missing much that is important. Classification should be viewed as a method and a tool only.

Although a perfect classification lies at present beyond scholars’ grasp, certain criteria, both positive and negative in nature, may be suggested for building and judging classifications. First, classifications should not be arbitrary, subjective, or provincial. A first principle of the scientific method is that objectivity should be pursued to the extent possible and that findings should be capable of confirmation by other observers. Second, an acceptable classification should deal with the essential and typical in the religious life, not with the accidental and the unimportant. The contribution to understanding that a classification may make is in direct proportion to the penetration of the bases of religious life exhibited in its principles of division. A good classification must concern itself with the fundamentals of religion and with the most typical elements of the units it is seeking to order. Third, a proper classification should be capable of presenting both that which is common to religious forms of a given type and that which is peculiar or unique to each member of the type. Thus, no classification should ignore the concrete historical individuality of religious manifestations in favour of that which is common to them all, nor should it neglect to demonstrate the common factors that are the bases for the very distinction of types of religious experience, manifestations, and forms. Classification of religions involves both the systematic and the historical tasks of the general science of religion. Fourth, it is desirable in a classification that it demonstrate the dynamics of religious life both in the recognition that religions as living systems are constantly changing and in the effort to show, through the categories chosen, how it is possible for one religious form or manifestation to develop into another. Few errors have been more damaging to the understanding of religion than that of viewing religious systems as static and fixed, as, in effect, ahistorical. Adequate classifications should possess the flexibility to come to terms with the flexibility of religion itself. Fifth, a classification must define what exactly is to be classified. If the purpose is to develop types of religions as a whole, the questions of what constitutes a religion and what constitutes various individual religions must be asked. Since no historical manifestation of religion is known that has not exhibited an unvarying process of change, evolution, and development, these questions are far from easily solved. With such criteria in mind, it should be possible continuously to construct classification schemes that illuminate humanity’s religious history.

Worldwide Adherents of All Religions by Six Continental Areas, Mid-2014

Africa

Asia

Europe

Latin America

Northern America

Religionists

1,130,409,000

3,716,413,000

634,018,000

599,974,000

303,081,000

Christians

553,046,000

372,552,000

580,784,000

575,606,000

279,417,000

Roman Catholics

199,125,000

146,234,000

277,068,000

504,971,000

89,298,000

Protestants

209,681,000

93,681,000

94,079,000

62,884,000

62,003,000

Independents

119,783,000

147,535,000

15,082,000

53,960,000

71,855,000

Orthodox

50,533,000

18,748,000

202,831,000

1,104,000

7,770,000

Muslims

473,121,000

1,147,503,000

45,404,000

1,669,000

5,284,000

Sunnis

465,892,000

945,963,000

43,247,000

1,224,000

3,651,000

Shiʿites

2,817,000

192,170,000

2,125,000

432,000

1,039,000

Hindus

3,163,000

967,028,000

1,159,000

796,000

1,909,000

Buddhists

274,000

507,766,000

1,865,000

794,000

4,632,000

Mahayanists

261,000

363,160,000

1,167,000

793,000

4,010,000

Theravadins

12,800

128,606,300

196,000

1,900

558,000

Chinese folk-religionists

144,000

449,460,000

565,000

200,000

815,000

Ethnoreligionists

97,718,000

152,630,000

1,169,000

3,792,000

1,269,000

New religionists

216,900

60,786,000

646,000

1,929,200

2,465,300

Sikhs

81,600

23,561,300

582,000

7,700

633,000

Spiritists

3,100

2,200

146,400

13,751,000

252,000

Jews

132,000

6,302,000

1,519,000

457,000

5,608,000

Daoists (Taoists)

0

8,642,200

0

0

12,900

Confucianists

21,300

8,334,000

16,000

500

0

Bahaʾis

2,381,000

3,603,000

137,000

962,000

593,000

Jains

106,000

5,332,800

19,800

1,500

104,000

Shintoists

0

2,746,000

0

8,100

64,900

Zoroastrians

1,100

164,500

5,800

0

21,900

Nonreligionists

7,820,000

625,842,000

108,795,000

23,448,000

55,155,000

Agnostics

7,181,000

510,568,000

94,076,000

20,423,000

52,886,000

Atheists

639,000

115,274,000

14,719,000

3,025,000

2,269,000

Total population

1,138,229,000

4,342,255,000

742,813,000

623,422,000

358,236,000

Oceania

World

%

Change Rate (%)

Number of Countries

Religionists

31,295,000

6,415,190,000

88.6

1.28

234

Christians

28,534,000

2,389,939,000

33.0

1.26

234

Roman Catholics

9,326,000

1,226,022,000

16.9

1.11

234

Protestants

12,921,000

535,249,000

7.4

1.52

231

Independents

2,035,000

410,250,000

5.7

2.04

231

Orthodox

1,048,000

282,034,000

3.9

0.45

137

Muslims

609,000

1,673,590,000

23.1

1.79

214

Sunnis

502,000

1,460,479,000

20.2

1.80

212

Shiʿites

104,000

198,687,000

2.7

1.72

148

Hindus

542,000

974,597,000

13.5

1.08

144

Buddhists

620,000

515,951,000

7.1

0.83

152

Mahayanists

459,000

369,850,000

5.1

0.84

142

Theravadins

161,000

129,536,000

1.8

0.78

47

Chinese folk-religionists

108,000

451,292,000

6.2

0.63

120

Ethnoreligionists

394,000

256,972,000

3.5

1.31

146

New religionists

122,400

66,165,800

0.9

0.51

121

Sikhs

52,400

24,918,000

0.3

1.23

64

Spiritists

8,300

14,163,000

0.2

0.77

59

Jews

124,000

14,142,000

0.2

0.70

147

Daoists (Taoists)

4,900

8,660,000

0.1

0.48

6

Confucianists

52,200

8,424,000

0.1

0.56

17

Bahaʾis

118,000

7,794,000

0.1

1.66

224

Jains

3,100

5,567,200

0.1

1.22

19

Shintoists

0

2,819,000

0.0

0.34

8

Zoroastrians

2,700

196,000

0.0

0.10

27

Nonreligionists

7,534,000

828,594,000

11.4

0.22

233

Agnostics

6,977,000

692,111,000

9.6

0.30

233

Atheists

557,000

136,483,000

1.9

−0.20

223

Total population

38,829,000

7,243,784,000

100.0

1.15

234

Methodology. As defined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a person’s religion is what he or she professes, confesses, or states that it is. Totals are enumerated for each of the world’s 234 countries, using recent censuses, polls, surveys, yearbooks, reports, Web sites, literature, and other data. See the World Christian Database (www.worldchristiandatabase.org), the World Religion Database (www.worldreligiondatabase.org), and the Pew Research Center’s Religion and Public Life Project (www.pewforum.org) for more detail. Religions are ranked in order of worldwide size as of mid-2014.

Continents. These follow current UN demographic terminology, which divides the world into the six major areas shown above. See United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision (New York: UN, 2013), with populations of all continents, regions, and countries covering the period 1950–2100, with 100 variables for every country each year.

Change rate. This column documents the annual change in 2014 (projected from an average annual change from 2000 to 2010) in worldwide religious and nonreligious adherents. Note that the annual growth of the world’s population was 1.15%.

Countries. The last column enumerates sovereign and nonsovereign countries in which each religion or religious grouping has a numerically significant and organized following.

Agnostics. Persons professing no religion (unaffiliated), nonbelievers, freethinkers, uninterested, or dereligionized secularists indifferent to all religion (but who are not atheists). Together with atheists, the nonreligious number 829 million, or 11.4% of the world’ population (continuing to decline from a high of 20% in 1970).

Atheists. Persons professing atheism, skepticism, disbelief, or irreligion, including the militantly antireligious (opposed to all religion). While recent books have outlined the Western philosophical and scientific basis for atheism, the vast majority of atheists today are found in Asia (primarily Chinese communists).

Christians. Followers of Jesus Christ normally affiliated with churches (church members, with names written on church rolls, usually total number of baptized persons, including children baptized, dedicated, or undedicated), shown above divided among four major church traditions. Independents. This term denotes members of Christian churches and networks that regard themselves as independent of historical, mainstream, organized, institutionalized, confessional, and denominationalist Christianity. It also includes members of denominations who define themselves as Christians but differ significantly from organized mainstream Christianity (e.g., Unitarians, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses). Protestants. Includes Anglicans. The four traditions do not add up to the total number of Christians because of doubly affiliated, disaffiliated, and unaffiliated Christians.

Confucianists. Chinese and non-Chinese followers of Confucius and Confucianism, mostly neo-Confucianists in East and Southeast Asia and Korean Confucianists in Korea.

Ethnoreligionists. Followers of local, tribal, animistic, or shamanistic religions, with members restricted to one ethnic group.

Jews. Adherents of Judaism. For detailed data on "core" Jewish population, see the annual "World Jewish Population, 2012" article in the American Jewish Committee’s American Jewish Year Book (Dordrecht: Springer, 2013).

New religionists. Followers of Asian 20th-century neoreligions, neoreligious movements, radical new crisis religions, and syncretistic mass religions. Also includes other religionists, including quasi-religions, pseudoreligions, parareligions, religious or mystic systems, and religious and semireligious brotherhoods of numerous varieties.

Total population. UN medium variant figures for mid-2014, as provided in World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision.

Religious adherents in the United States

A list of religious adherents in the United States is provided in the table.

Religious Adherents in the United States of America, 1900–2010

1900

%

mid-1970

%

mid-1990

%

mid-2000

%

Religionists

74,994,000

98.7

199,421,000

95.0

231,127,000

91.2

250,531,000

88.0

Christians

73,260,000

96.4

191,130,000

91.1

216,161,600

85.3

232,276,300

81.6

Roman Catholics

10,775,000

14.2

48,305,000

23.0

56,500,000

22.3

62,970,000

22.1

Independents

6,650,000

8.8

39,768,000

18.9

51,340,000

20.3

62,816,000

22.1

Protestants

36,600,000

48.2

60,382,000

28.8

62,666,000

24.7

59,221,000

20.8

Orthodox

400,000

0.5

4,395,000

2.1

5,150,000

2.0

5,595,000

2.0

Jews

1,500,000

2.0

5,870,000

2.8

5,535,000

2.2

5,628,000

2.0

Muslims

10,000

0.0

800,000

0.4

3,300,000

1.3

3,747,000

1.3

Sunnis

6,500

0.0

520,000

0.2

2,145,000

0.8

2,440,000

0.9

Shiʿites

2,000

0.0

160,000

0.1

660,000

0.3

774,000

0.3

Buddhists

30,000

0.0

200,000

0.1

1,880,000

0.7

3,482,000

1.2

Mahayanists

30,000

0.0

190,000

0.1

1,692,000

0.7

3,037,000

1.1

Theravadins

0

0.0

8,000

0.0

169,000

0.1

398,000

0.1

New religionists

20,000

0.0

1,010,000

0.5

1,685,000

0.7

2,064,000

0.7

Hindus

1,000

0.0

100,000

0.0

750,000

0.3

1,231,000

0.4

Ethnoreligionists

100,000

0.1

70,000

0.0

780,000

0.3

977,000

0.3

Bahaʾis

3,000

0.0

138,000

0.1

600,000

0.2

434,000

0.2

Sikhs

0

0.0

10,000

0.0

160,000

0.1

239,000

0.1

Spiritists

0

0.0

0

0.0

120,000

0.0

194,000

0.1

Chinese folk-religionists

70,000

0.1

90,000

0.0

76,000

0.0

99,600

0.0

Jains

0

0.0

3,000

0.0

5,000

0.0

74,000

0.0

Shintoists

0

0.0

0

0.0

50,000

0.0

57,500

0.0

Zoroastrians

0

0.0

0

0.0

14,400

0.0

16,200

0.0

Daoists (Taoists)

0

0.0

0

0.0

10,000

0.0

11,400

0.0

Nonreligionists

1,001,000

1.3

10,470,000

5.0

22,212,000

8.8

34,063,000

12.0

Agnostics

1,000,000

1.3

10,270,000

4.9

21,442,000

8.5

32,896,000

11.6

Atheists

1,000

0.0

200,000

0.1

770,000

0.3

1,167,000

0.4

U.S. population

75,995,000

100.0

209,891,000

100.0

253,339,000

100.0

284,594,000

100.0

Annual Change, 2000–2010

mid-2010

%

Natural

Conversion

Total

Rate (%)

Religionists

267,620,000

85.7

2,434,300

−725,400

1,708,900

0.66

Christians

248,182,800

79.5

2,256,900

−666,200

1,590,700

0.66

Roman Catholics

70,656,000

22.6

611,900

156,700

768,600

1.16

Independents

68,292,000

21.9

610,400

−62,800

547,600

0.84

Protestants

58,206,000

18.6

575,400

−676,900

−101,500

−0.17

Orthodox

6,253,000

2.0

54,400

−11,400

−65,800

−1.12

Jews

5,238,000

1.7

54,700

−93,700

−39,000

−0.72

Muslims

4,131,000

1.3

36,400

2,000

38,400

0.98

Sunnis

2,678,000

0.9

22,900

1,000

23,800

0.94

Shiʿites

885,000

0.3

10,000

500

11,100

1.35

Buddhists

3,979,000

1.3

33,800

15,900

49,700

1.34

Mahayanists

3,439,000

1.1

29,500

10,700

40,200

1.25

Theravadins

481,000

0.2

3,900

4,400

8,300

1.91

New religionists

2,233,000

0.7

20,100

−3,200

16,900

0.79

Hindus

1,453,000

0.5

12,000

10,200

22,200

1.67

Ethnoreligionists

1,091,000

0.3

9,500

1,900

11,400

1.11

Bahaʾis

516,000

0.2

4,200

4,000

8,200

1.75

Sikhs

281,000

0.1

2,300

1,900

4,200

1.63

Spiritists

227,000

0.1

1,900

1,400

3,300

1.58

Chinese folk-religionists

109,000

0.0

1,000

−100

900

0.91

Jains

85,900

0.0

700

500

1,200

1.50

Shintoists

63,100

0.0

600

0

600

0.93

Zoroastrians

17,700

0.0

200

0

200

0.89

Daoists (Taoists)

12,500

0.0

100

0

100

0.93

Nonreligionists

44,627,000

14.3

331,000

725,400

1,056,400

2.74

Agnostics

43,309,000

13.9

319,600

721,700

1,041,300

2.79

Atheists

1,318,000

0.4

11,300

3,800

15,100

1.22

U.S. population

312,247,000

100.0

2,765,000

0

2,765,000

0.93

Methodology. This table extracts and analyzes a microcosm of the world religion table. It depicts the United States with estimates at five points in time from 1900 to 2010. Each religion’s Annual Change for 2000–2010 is also analyzed by Natural increase (births minus deaths, plus immigrants minus emigrants) per year and Conversion increase (converts in minus converts out) per year, which together constitute the Total increase per year. Rate increase is then computed as percentage per year.

Structure. Vertically the table lists major religious categories. The major categories (including nonreligious) in the U.S. are listed with the largest (Christians) first. Indented names of groups in the "Adherents" column are subcategories of the groups above them and are also counted in these unindented totals, so they should not be added twice into the column total. Owing to rounding, the corresponding percentage figures sometimes might not total exactly to 100%. Religions are ranked in order of size in 2010.

Agnostics and atheists (See world table for definitions.) Together (termed "nonreligionists") in 2010 these number 44.6 million, or 14.3% of the total population. This is markedly higher than the 1970 figure of 10.4 million (5%). Note that these figures are lower than survey results for the "unaffiliated" or "nones," which include large numbers of religionists who are indifferent to or dislike organized religion.

Christians. Followers of Jesus Christ normally affiliated with churches. (See also the note on Christians below the world religion table.) The indented lines under "Christians" are ranked by size in 2010 for each of the four major church traditions (Independent, Orthodox, Protestant, Roman Catholic). Two important subcategories of Christians (potentially from all four traditions) are Evangelicals and Pentecostals. Evangelicals are mainly Protestant churches, agencies, and individuals who call themselves by this term (for example, members of the National Association of Evangelicals); these numbered approximately 45 million in mid-2010. Pentecostals include classical Pentecostals (such as Assemblies of God), Charismatics (in mainline churches), and Independent Charismatics (such as African Instituted Churches). Together these numbered approximately 66 million in 2010. There is some overlap between Evangelicals and Pentecostals.

Jews. Core Jewish population relating to Judaism, excluding ethnically Jewish persons professing a different religion or no religion.